RealNetworks reviews

2.9

33% would recommend to a friend

(304 total reviews)
avatar

Rob Glaser

37% approve of CEO

18% positive business outlook

RealNetworks has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 304 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The RealNetworks employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

304 reviews
2.0
Feb 4, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Real used to be a solid company in the dot-com era. They were smart; they built a lot of good technology, media players and founded Rhapsody as well (still their best product IMHO). There were smart people who worked there and they treated their employees well. They still have a good work/life balance and some decent benefits. Plus the location in downtown Seattle is great.

Cons

The political infighting was really hard to deal with - there were many power struggles that caused people to stop focusing on what was important - getting the job done. Also the senior management changed 2x while i was there in two years and it was very hard to maintain a solid direction. The management would not listen to the plans that their senior managers and directors would propose and often changed direction very quickly. Morale is also very low.

3.0
Feb 3, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company has a cloud system that is global in presence and well-designed, it is a great environment to learn the technology, partly because there are too many tasks and not enough technical people to carry them out, so asking to be part of something that is outside your specific task set is generally welcomed.

Cons

While the technology side of the company is able and agile, senior management struggles with finding an identity for the enterprise. The game portals have very loyal customers, but they don't seem to promote them anywhere online. The mp3 selling business (Rhapsody) was spun off last year. They have some interesting streaming business lines in SE Asia, but it's a small percentage of there business. One of the business lines is selling ringtones and ringback tones, with smartphones very few people need to buy ringtones anymore. Intra-departmental competition over who controls network operations and monitoring has frustrated the attempts of middle management to lower network costs.

3.0
Jan 25, 2013

Perpetual Layoff Cycles

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

free on site gym, 25 cent arancianta, bowling alley, intelligent and interesting coworkers, in my case-amazing supervisors : real leadership, real genuine, and real humanity. paid ORCA card, affordable in house cafeteria, convenient downtown location

Cons

All the amazing, intelligent, people who you will learn from and become part of your family will get laid off. Then you will get laid off. Every year I worked there, I witnessed a Christmas layoff and eventually fell victim to the same fate in the Spring. Management seems to miss the mark all the way around and don't understand the value in personnel.

Viewing 148 - 150 of 304 Reviews

Glassdoor has 322 RealNetworks reviews submitted anonymously by RealNetworks employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if RealNetworks is right for you.